Seventh grader begins school supplies donation drive to help county students
By Steve Herring
Published in News on November 2, 2016 10:53 AM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Seventh grader Pete Sargent loads school supplies he will be donating to Wayne County students affected by the flooding of Hurricane Matthew.
Pete Sargent's home in the Seven Springs community was spared the devastating flooding that left most of Wayne County's oldest town under water.
But Pete, a seventh-grader at Spring Creek Middle School, is helping students who were not as fortunate.
"The reason I wanted to do this is so I could benefit some communities, like Seven Springs, that had been flooded out and some of the other school districts," Pete said.
Pete, 12, is working on his Boy Scout Citizenship in Communities merit badge by replacing damaged school supplies through a special school supply drive for six Communities in Schools Success Coach schools.
The schools are Brogden Middle, Goldsboro High, Grantham Middle, Mount Olive Middle, Seven Springs High and Southern Wayne High.
School supplies can be dropped off at the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, 308 N. William St., Goldsboro.
Monetary donations will be used to purchase gift cards for the social workers serving the six schools to purchase emergency supplies for students affected by the storm.
Checks should be made payable to Communities in Schools and note on the memo line "Pete's Project."
"We do not have a cost amount on the total amount of school supplies that students lost," said Ken Derksen, public information officer for Wayne County Public Schools. "I can confirm that as of this (Wednesday) morning, WCPS is aware of over 130 students who are in need of school supplies to replace those that were lost or damaged by floodwaters."
Derksen said that 25 of the system's 32 schools have one or more student in need of supplies.
"The schools that had the highest number of students in need of school supplies were those located in the Central Attendance Zone and those located in the southern end of the county which had students living in areas impacted by the river flooding," Derksen said.
Pete, the son of Lee and Elizabeth Sargent, said that through the project he had learned that a person does not have to be an adult to make that difference.
A member of Boy Scout Troop 92 at Brogden United Methodist Church, he has surpassed the eight hours of work required to earn the badge.
"I needed to come up with a nonprofit organization (for the badge) so I was looking around online and I found Communities in Schools," he said.
He called to asked how he could help.
It was suggested he try to collect as much school supplies and/or donations to help students who were flooded out and had lost their school supplies.
He started collecting within a week after the storm struck.
So far he has collected book bags, folders, pencils, book covers.
His first donation was from his grandparents, David and Dee Stentz.
Many of donations have been from his church, Mount Olive Presbyterian.
"My mom posted on Facebook, and I have been getting them mostly from Scouts and churches," he said.
"He has collected a lot with just personal people giving them to him," Mrs. Sargent said. "I said to him why do you think education is so important in our house?" she said.
"Because my grandmother, granddaddy and my mom and my sister are teaching," Pete said.
"His grandparents are retired teachers," Mrs. Sargent said. "Both his mom and his aunt teach, and he said even his sister teaches Sunday school at church. We are very proud of him."
Mrs. Sargent teaches in the pre-K program at School Street School.
"I have really seen the (storm's) effect because that is the only shelter in Wayne County (now)," she said. "That has been kind of hard seeing the families and the children still without a home. Actually on the way here (to Mount Olive for the interview) we went down John Street (in Goldsboro) and saw where people have been evacuated out of those homes and still haven't gone back.
"That has been hard to see. Even with all of the pictures and stuff people are showing on Facebook, to actually see it. It is tough to see it happen"
Looking at photos of the damage online is one thing, but to see the devastation in person is another, Pete said.
"It will hit you," he said.
Pete has also helped members from First Presbyterian Church when they served food at the shelter that had been opened at Carver Elementary School in Mount Olive.
Those in the shelter represented a cross-section of races, ages and income, Mrs. Sargent said.
"He met a little boy named Alex who had come from Fayetteville to spend the weekend with his grandmother," Mrs. Sargent said. "They got evacuated from his grandmother's house. He was actually displaced times two because he couldn't' get back to his home in Fayetteville.
"It was just hard to see how many people had been affected. Of course he (Pete) wasn't around for (Hurricane) Floyd to know that it has only been 16 and a half years since something as devastating to happen again."
Pete said he feel good about the project because he is helping provide for his community and other communities, too.
The new supplies also help provide a sense of normalcy for the student, he said. Pete has a message for others.
"If you think you can help out if something like a really bad storm like this hit, go out and see if you can help other people," he said. "If you know people around your neighborhood, and that they need help cleaning up their yard, then you can help them."